GENEVA/PORT SUDAN: Over 40 people, including children and health care workers, were killed in an attack on a hospital in Sudan at the weekend, the head of the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.

Saturday`s attack on the Al Mujlad Hospital took place in West Kordofan, near the front linebetween the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who have been fighting each other since the conflict broke out in April 2023.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesuscalled for attacks on health infrastructure to stop, without saying who was responsible.

The WHO Sudan office said that six children and five medics were killed in the attack, reporting extensive damage to the facility.

Emergency Lawyers, a human rights group, accused an army drone of striking the hospital on Saturday, but in a statement on Sunday put the death toll at nine.

Kenyan arms Sudan`s army-backed government accused Kenya on Tuesday of funnelling weapons from the United Arab Emirates to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, at war with the regular army since April 2023.

The army last month `uncov-ered Kenyan-labelled arms and ammunition in the terrorist RSF militia`s weapon caches in Khartoum,` the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The army and RSF have traded accusations for months of receiving arms from foreign powers, including the UAE, Egypt, Iran, Turkey and Russia.

`Kenya has been one of the main conduits of the Emirati military supplies to the terrorist RSF militia,` the foreign ministry charged. The war between army chief Abdel Fattah alBurhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dag10, has killed tens of thousands and uprooted more than 13 million.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has repeatedly warned `outside powers are fuelling thefire` and called for an end to foreign arms deliveries to the warring parties, without naming specific countries.

The UAE has been repeatedly accused of arming the RSF through neighbouring Chad and Libya. The army-backed government has long been able to count on the support of Egypt but it has also drawn closer to Turkiye, Iran and Russia since the war began.

It severed ties with the UAE in March, declaring it an `aggressor state` and accusing it of using the RSF as a `proxy` to attack Sudan.

Abu Dhabi has repeatedly denied the accusations, despite numerous reports from UN experts, US lawmakers and internationalorganisations.

The army-backed governmenthas long been angered by Kenya`s readiness to host RSF leaders and has imposed a ban on imports from the East African country.

In late February, the RSF and its allies signed a charter in the Kenyan capital to establish a rival government.

The foreign ministry statement claimedKenya `admitted` last week that the UAE is supporting the RSF `to seize Sudan`s naturalresourcesandtoestablish a foothold on the Red Sea`.

In a now-deleted post on X, Kenyan government spokesman Isaac Mwaura had on June 16 written that `Egypt and Iran back (the Sudanese Armed Forces); the UAE backs RSF.

On the ground, fierce fighting has continued between the army and the RSF.-AFP